The Stanley Israelite Business Park should be expanded to include brand-name companies like U.S. Foods and Comfort Suites, the city’s draft Plan of Conservation and Development suggests.

Such a move, outlined in the document by changing the park’s boundaries to incorporate those Otrobando Avenue businesses, could pave the way for new development opportunities at the 450-acre business park.

It not only would expand its size, but would show would-be investors the city is able to attract a variety of industry bases.

The Plan of Conservation and Development was drafted by a subcommittee of the Commission on the City Plan, which is expected to grant final approval of it in July.

“It’s taking advantage of some of our big business assets,” Norwich Community Development Corporation Vice President Jason Vincent said, in support of the proposal. “What we have to do is come up with some tactics, and how we implement them to make it happen.”

With an 84 percent occupancy rate and businesses that employ more than 2,800 full-time workers and 1,400 residential tenants, the park is a strong part of the city’s economy.

In a Wednesday email to subscribers, NCDC President Bob Mills said he supported the concept of adding more acreage into the park.

“This would allow us to have a larger business park with more amenities, add major employers to the park and enable the city to improve infrastructure and aesthetics of the neighborhood,” Mills wrote in the agency’s monthly newsletter. “We will be developing an implementation strategy to make this happen.”

In the meantime, the park’s tenants are turning toward a more grassroots approach to figure out the next steps.

Frank Blanchard, owner of Prime Electric at 33 Wisconsin Ave. and a member of NCDC’s board, recently presided over a meeting with stakeholders who do business in the park.

“The business park is a very busy, viable place during the day, and a lot of improvements are slated,” he said. “If we are able to expand its boundaries, that would be a good thing.”

In his newsletter, Mills said NCDC has received two broker inquiries for space at the park totaling 195,000 square feet. That includes an unnamed manufacturer who is looking for 175,000 square feet.

“In terms of what’s available in the marketplace, it’s still a very competitive location,” Vincent said. “We are working with a number of different projects.

Some that involve developing new sites within the existing park space that can be used for buildings and structures, to placing businesses within current structures.”